A TOP Sudanese general has said the army will press on with its offensive despite international efforts to broker a ceasefire in the 17-month civil war.
“Peace talks can go on, but the army will not stop for that,” Assistant Commander-in-Chief Lt Gen Ibrahim Gabir told the BBC.
He was speaking just days after the army launched an operation to regain control of the capital, Khartoum, from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The two sides have been fighting since April last year, when their leaders fell out over the country’s future. This has created a humanitarian catastrophe with more than half the country facing hunger and millions forced from their homes.
The general also hinted in the wide-ranging interview that the Sudanese authorities had had weapons dealings with Iran, and denied there was famine in the country.
“When the parties agree [to a ceasefire], the army can stop,” he said, repeating army demands that the RSF withdraw from areas that it has occupied.
“Let the international community exert pressure on the militia to stop the fighting and leave the houses that it’s taken,” he said, adding he was “more confident” now that the army had the momentum.
Fresh diplomatic attempts to negotiate a cessation of hostilities have failed to make progress, the US Sudan Envoy Tom Perriello acknowledged this week.
“The situation is extremely dire and those who are in the best position to stop it seem eager instead to accelerate it,” he told journalists in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
He did cite some improvement on humanitarian access, noting that a couple of hundred trucks carrying aid had been able to get through to areas that were previously blocked.
“But we obviously need to be at a significantly different scale from that,” he said.
For many months the army had prevented the shipment of aid via a crucial border post controlled by the RSF between Chad and Darfur. In August it agreed to allow them to resume, and the RSF promised to facilitate deliveries in the areas it holds.
Gen Gabir denied allegations that the army was still dragging its feet in approving the necessary paperwork for humanitarian groups, reeling off the number of visas and permits issued.
He emphasised that the RSF had looted humanitarian goods, and was still preventing aid from entering the besieged city of el-Fasher in North Darfur.
And he repeated army denials that there was famine in the country, again blaming the RSF for the hunger crisis.